I’ve been a fan of Milcho Manchevski’s obscure BEFORE THE RAIN for years – I remember buying a bootlegged DVD copy on Ebay years ago and printing my own sleeve, wishing Criterion would put out a quality version of this almost unheard-of gem (I first watched it in my globalisation class when I was studying in the Czech Republic, and it’s stayed with me ever since). Maybe it’s because seeing the darkly beautiful Gregoire Colin as a young Christian monk who’s taken a vow of silence sends shivers down my spine, or because the narrative connects from beginning to end in an unexpectedly magical circle, or because I find the Balkan countryside – chaotic, tentative, gorgeous, tortured, totally irresistable…Criterion describes it as a “gripping triptych of love and violence”, fittingly so.